In addition to controlling object appearance, other properties determine other basic characteristics of an object. For example, an Audio object also has a PlayCount property that lets you specify how many times you want the specified audio file to play.
You use Jamba's Object Editor to set properties.
To use the Object Editor to set a property:
1. Right click on the object.
2. Choose Properties... from the popup menu.
The Object Editor appears. As shown in the following example, the Properties tab of the editor is currently selected.
The name of the selected object appears in the title bar of the Object Editor.
3. Find the Property you want to set.
For a complete list of properties and their definitions, see Chapter 7.
Hint: You can scroll down to see properties not in view. You can also resize the dialog box or you can press a letter key to jump to the next property that begins with that letter.
4. Select the property you want to set.
The following figure shows the Filename property selected for a Graphic object.
5. Click in the Value field for the selected property.
6. Set the Value field as desired.
When you click in the Value field, you can set the property to suit the needs of your application. For example, you can set the label on a Push Button or you can set the file used by an Audio or Graphic object.
Quick Helpers versus Typing
If the field requires a string, you can simply type it. However, many fields use Quick Helpers (specialized dialog boxes) to let you select values quickly and easily without typing. For example, if you click in the Value field of a Filename property an Open dialog box automatically appears to let you search for the desired filename.
If you need to type a value rather than select it from a Quick Helper, you can turn off the Quick Helpers option by right clicking in the Object Editor and deselecting the Quick Helpers command. Note that even when Quick Helpers are turned off, you still have the option of accessing the helper tools by clicking on a button that becomes available in the Value field.
When you finish selecting a value in a Quick Helper dialog box, you click on OK and the information is returned to the Value field. Note that if the selected value is a filename, the file is automatically copied to the correct project subdirectory if it is located elsewhere on your system.
The tool that lets you search for a filename is just an example of the many kinds of tools that let you set properties. Other examples are the Color dialog box that lets you select a color value and a Font dialog box that lets you select a font value. If you need assistance in using any of the tools that appear, refer to Appendix A for information on how to use the dialog boxes that are commonly found throughout Jamba.
You can reset any property as many times as necessary, set additional properties for the same object, or select a different object and set its properties. The Object Editor remains open until you explicitly close it. If the Object Editor is open and an object is not currently selected, the editor displays the message "no items selected."
Important: You can also set an object's property when an event occurs at runtime. For example, you can set a Graphic object's Filename property as soon as a user clicks on the Graphic or on another object, such as a Push Button. You specify the actions that you want to happen when an event occurs by setting up an object's To Do List. For more information on the To Do List, see the section entitled "To Do List - Controlling Object Actions."
To use the Object Editor to set a property:
